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So I don't have experience with the Fluval peat specifically, but I do have some experience with peat in general. There are a few things to consider and not all of them are concerns that you expressed, but I'll try to focus on what you brought up. Peat is advertised for two main functions: softening the water (reducing GH) or acidifying your water (reducing pH). Depending on what people buy the peat for, their results may be satisfactory. Peat reduces the GH by binding the magnesium ions. It may bind other ions but I can't say it with certainty. I have not personally had success reducing my KH with peat. The bicarbonates in my water (limestone aquifer as municipal water source) were not neutralized by peat and the only thing that ultimately worked for me was adding RO to my tanks.* Peat can directly lower pH, but if you have a heavily buffered tank this is far less likely to occur. If you find success lowering your KH with peat, you may see more dramatic results than expected. *I was attempting to reduce hardness less for my fish (as I have never had an issue with hard water tolerance, even though I primarily keep soft water fish) and more for avoiding the hard water stains that come from evaporation. A few points that you didn't necessarily ask about but I wanted to provide my two cents on. I really don't advise attempting to lower hardness when keeping livebearers. Most fish can tolerate harder/softer water than their "ideal" parameters but livebearers have the unfortunate case where they're regularly producing fry. This can have negative impacts on their bone density and is a contributor to some of the issues that you commonly see (the ACO article on livebearer's disease goes into this a bit). Peat is a nonrenewable resource so it may help to find an alternative for reducing the parameters that you desire. Catappa and many botanicals are renewable alternatives. I personally use live oak leaves (the species, not as in leaves that are still living) in addition to catappa leaves and alder cones. In my blackwater setups I tend to include mulch that has a very similar effect to peat. An option to purchasing Fluval's filter media is to use media bags and fill them with what you want. If you do choose to go with peat, it is likely far more economical to buy a bag of peat at a garden center and use a media bag in your canister as opposed to purchasing from Fluval. This is what I did prior to making the switch to the alternatives in the above point.

So one of the things with fish is that there are more variables than what we assume. I'll take your example of a 20H and your stocking choices. From a needs perspective, your apistos and dithers should do great in a 20H! In practice that will vary which is why a very common piece of advice is to have a backup plan. Fish have individual personalities. There are angelfish that need to fly solo due to conspecific aggression, apistos that won't tolerate anyone who isn't making babies with them, bettas that have it out for tank mates, and more. There are also cases where things that you would think are destined to fail, but end up succeeding: betta sororities, tetras with long-finned fish, African cichlids or goldfish in planted tanks, GBRs or discus in lower temp setups, the list goes on. Most of the data on fishkeeping is empirical at best and there is a lot of trial and error involved if you have a very specific setup that you want to work with. If I interpret the advice that you were given, I think that I can come up with the reasoning behind some of the answers that were given. Do you plan to breed your apistos? Many purists will say that you should have them in a species only setup if this is the case as you will generally have the most success and the fewest losses. That said, there are numerous documented cases of breeding in a community setting so I wouldn't let this turn you away unless your apistos begin causing harm to tankmates. The footprint of a 20H is enough space for a pair of apistos in my opinion. That said, I'm more on the angelfish/ram side of things and 20H is adequate for a temporary breeding setup for angels or a permanent setup for a pair of GBRs. For Bolivian rams it would be dependent on the individual fish. I'm sorry for not using apistos as an example but I have far more experience with keeping and breeding angels/rams compared to apistos and hopefully can illustrate the thought process that I use there so that you can apply it to your fish. A lot of the direct "yes" or "no" answers will come from people who have either tried and succeeded or tried and failed with your setup or one that was very similar. People tend to assume that what does/doesn't work for them means that it does/doesn't work period. If you're a member on YouTube and want an in-depth response from Cory I highly recommend that you ask when they open questions for their members streams. Even if you can't attend the stream, the VOD will be posted and Cory and Zenzo have given a lot more in-depth answers there. I don't even bring questions to the stream and they're incredibly valuable to watch because you see the depth of thought given and the occasional conflicting opinions of experienced aquarists, as well as what contributes to why there's conflict. On the hobby side of aquariums there isn't a black and white right or wrong. It's one of those things that you have to develop a feel for. I've had the luxury of time and observation since I'm an analytically-minded person and observation was a major component of my career for several years, but I understand that it may require more practice for others.

Gasping at the top of the tank is almost always a sign that the water has a low volume of dissolved oxygen. Increasing the flow on your sponge filter to facilitate more surface agitation and a water change can help in event of deoxygenation. Many medications and water conditioners can contribute to this.

I seem to be late to the thread but have you considered hanging grow lights above the tank? I've been doing some preliminary research since getting my new rack and I'm seriously considering grow light panels to light each shelf instead of getting a light for each tank. The main drawback is that these aren't waterproofed, but truth be told most mid-range aquarium lights aren't either so I wouldn't call it much of a drawback. The main drawback would be rigging the lights.

Looks like a limpet to me! Even tiny pond snails and bladder snails tend to have the same shape as their larger counterparts.

The main issue that I have with it is that it's a HOB filter, notorious for sucking up shrimp, but also positioned so that it negatively impacts fish. The tank isn't the right size for a betta or most adult fish, but it's the right size for fry. Sure it's a good attempt but I was trying to point out room for improvement. A beginner may buy the tank, put shrimp in them, and get discouraged when the shrimp are hurt due to the lack of baffle on the filter.

Are they fish that you bought or fish that you bred? If they weren't like that before, it's very common for angels to get bent fins or other malformations due to mishandling while young or genetic factors.

The setup in the photo is from one of their kits. Unfortunately kits still have a ways to go in terms of filters/lights and the filter in this specific kit is actually a step backwards imo because it cuts into the tank's swimming space.

If you must remineralize for some reason, use a product formulated for freshwater. The only case for most freshwater keepers to use marine salt is for hatching brine shrimp. The trace amounts added into the system from feeding brine shrimp to the tank can be beneficial to plants but I will place emphasis on trace amounts. Seachem manufactures some decent mineral additives for freshwater and Equilibrium is fairly commonly used and widely available. Other popular additives are wonder shell and crushed coral. All of that said, remineralizing RO is almost never necessary for freshwater. The only time that I have ever kept a species that required it was my Caridina colony.

Thanks for the input and luckily I have some on-hand. I just had a quick look into it and apparently anabantoids are more prone to it. I guess you learn something new every day.

When I kept mine I had them on blanched veg/canned green beans and fed them some Shrimp King Mineral or soy hulls. They're pretty water cockroaches and take just about everything.

I separated my sparkling gouramis because the male turned into a tank boss and the female got skinny. She's already a been finicky so I'm looking for suggestions on what may bring her back ASAP since I'm not really comfortable with her current weight. Background- I've owned my sparklings for almost 2 years. They had some kind of cestode infestation (most likely tapeworm) that was treated within the first two months of my owning them. Until recently they shared my heavily planted 10g. I've attached a photo at the bottom and want to point out how slim her abdomen is. Her ovaries have completely shrunk to the point that they're no longer visible and she's been like this for over a month while I try to put weight back on her. The tank that I moved her into is my portrait with no tankmates and that happened this morning. The tank has seed shrimp, hydra, and other microfauna for her to pick at on the side. Parameters (origin tank, the portrait that she moved into is similar but is heated by the room and fluctuates 76-80F/24.5-27C) Ammonia and nitrogen compounds are zeroed and I dose the tank with Easy Green 2x/week for my stems. Temp is 78F/26C. GH/KH are 25-75/0-40 respectively. The GH/KH are the primary recent change as I live in Texas and have extremely hard water normally. I replaced my old water softener 2 months ago and have had much softer water since then. I have Equilibrium on standby but as I'm not one to chase parameters I wanted to wait and see, then have it ready just in case. General feeding routine- One 10mg scoop for each of them (so 20mg total) mixed with tank water and released into the water column. They also get 3mL of vinegar eels (ready to feed) or baby brine most days, whatever I have readily available. I don't designate frozen foods for this tank but tend to cut a slice off of cubes that go into other tanks and give them a little bit. These guys don't eat much at a time so I've had the most success keeping their water clean by giving them very small but more frequent feedings, usually 3-5x per day. The tank also has otocinclus (2) that get Soilent Green/spirulina tabs and wild type Neocaridinas that pick at whatever the fish don't get. Foods/other that I have tried in the main tank- Blood worms (frozen and freeze dried) - Neither of my sparklings will eat blood worms, even if I mince them. Easy Fry Food - She eats this but a great deal of it goes to waste. She hasn't gained much weight even if I give small amounts (one 10mg scoop) 3x in a day in addition to regular feedings. Daphnia (frozen and freeze dried) - She eats these but hasn't gained any weight on them. GarlicGuard - Doesn't entice her which is pretty unfortunate because my sparklings and plecos are the only fish that don't give a hoot about it and I would love to have an effective additive right now. Fluval Bug Bites - This is their current staple food. The granule size is mostly right for them. I give it by mixing one 10mg scoop per fish with tank water and releasing it to the water column as they eat the most quickly at mid water twice per day (a bit more on days that I'm home). Hikari Micro Pellets/Micro Wafers/Vibra Bites - Putting these together because some of the pieces are small enough for them but others aren't and get wasted. I stopped feeding both foods as a staple because of this. Repashy Community Plus (gelled and powdered) - Since the gel form sinks, neither eat it. I have given it to them powdered and they have eaten it which made me think that maybe I should try Spawn and Grow as a supplement to her diet? Tubifex worms (frozen) - This is how I initially got weight onto both of them shortly after I brought them home, but the place that I got them from no longer keeps them in stock and I haven't found another source. Xtreme Krill Flakes - Honestly my best commercial flake candidate. She eats it but hasn't gained much weight on it. Similar issue to Easy Fry Food. VitaChem - Not a food but I often soak my frozen foods in VitaChem because of the attractants in it. It helps to get my less aggressive eaters into the good stuff before it's gone. I also keep a few fin nippers so this has multiple purposes in my routine.

Picked up a new rack! I have a 29 and a 20L in storage + relocated my invert tank onto it. I'm not sure how I want to go about this whole setup thing but I'm really leaning toward making it into a breeding rack with planted tanks on top, breeding setups on the bottom, and growouts in the middle. I lost my female angel recently so this unfortunately won't be used for her, but I may look into finally raising sparkling gourami fry or breeding my GBRs.

I think you used the right word personally. Regardless of the size of the leak, the old silicone does need to be removed due to the nature of the material. Old silicone won't adhere to new and that serves to make our lives harder 🥲

The hex has 12" per face (~59cm at the widest point) and the cube is 39cm wide. The stand's surface is 114x61. Combining setups isn't an option for me because my GBRs are in the cube and I'd also rather not rescape it as it has a great deal of crypts (tropica, a ton of parva, and my pink flamingo). The flamingo has finally quit being a drama queen after MONTHS of having it in there. I'm planning to set up another rack within the next few months so I'm leaning toward leaving things as-is and maybe moving in some of my livebearers as dithers if he winds up harassing my rams too much. So far they've mostly kept to themselves.

Thanks! This hex was a learning curve for sure since the footprint is strange but I've definitely grown to like it. The main thing holding me back from transitioning them to my 29 immediately is space. My 15 cube is on the same stand and there wouldn't be much wiggle room in terms of space if I set up the 29 in the footprint of the hex.

Mine were actually great parents and took a few tries, but could raise their fry to free swimmers without any intervention. I never figured out how to raise the babies independently because I never needed to. The only potential predators in the tank were the parents and my Bolivian rams so it was fairly easy to get them to darts before the parents would start to pick on them. I enjoy my water fairly tannic so I had a media bag filled with topsoil to get the tannins started. For a tank this size it's impractical to use catappa or more conventional botanicals lol. The mopani is actually three different pieces held together by reef epoxy. It cost me about half as much as a piece that size would probably cost me where I bought it. Since the last time I posted a photo, it has significantly less tannin because I removed that media bag and replaced it with Purigen after a few water changes. This was because the soil was raising my nitrates and my attempts at growing plants have largely failed in the setup. I would consider re-adding it if I convert the tank into a paludarium, which is one of the options that I'm considering now that I'm down to one angel. The main thing that I've been enjoying in the hobby as of late would be plants (which extends to my other hobbies, this spring has been my most ambitious garden yet) so I've considered a setup with vallisneria or another line of sight breaking plant, epiphytes, and ideally splitting up one of my crypts and planting it in there. That said, getting into the tank is a huge pain in the butt so I may stick to epiphytes that I attach to the driftwood. I'm still in the fantasy stage of what to do and given the number of tanks that I have I'm also considering consolidating my threads into one post.

I used to paint my tanks but now I use insulating window film. Most of it is the static cling variety and easily removable/customizable. The roll that I purchased was also reusable.

Another quick update. Apparently we had a power outage overnight! I have multiple USB nano pumps and backup power with a space heater (safe for indoors of course) to heat the room that my tanks are in but those all have to be swapped over manually, which I obviously didn't do as I was asleep. I'm very fortunate to have only lost the one fish from the incident.

Welp it's been awhile. I've been spending more time enjoying the tank than updating and it's time to make a bit of a sad one. Got up this morning and found that my female angel had passed. She was from a janky bloodline (bent fins, wonky body shape) so I didn't expect her to have the same longevity as my male, but I went to bed with her behaving normally so it was a bit of a shock. The other fish are all behaving normally so we can probably chalk this up to one of those "we will probably never know" deaths as my parameters are still in-line with what's normal. I'm at a stage where I'm strongly considering retiring the tank and replacing it with a 29 gallon as I've always kept it low stock and had difficulty growing anything other than vallisneria in it. With the current stock I could easily downsize to 29g without having to relocate any of the inhabitants.

Here you go. This is my desktop setup. It's a mix of trailing houseplants with mint and sage. They're all in the little baskets that aquarium plants come in and have leca beads in the container. The plant that dislikes wet feet (the string of turtles) is propped up on a sponge. The other setup is still WIP and basically a bunch of stems tucked into tanks while they grow roots. I was planning to create a DIY thread about it when the project is complete and would rather not hijack the OP's thread.

Seconding the aromatics! I use most of my smaller tanks for aquaponics and edibles include mint, basil, thyme, rosemary, and strawberries. That would be far safer than adding fragrance directly to a tank, especially since fragrance oils are usually irritants.

It's super common to see this kind of growth on surfaces early in a tank's life. I added some driftwood to my invert tank and wound up with some myself. It's completely harmless but if you don't like to look at it you can gently remove it with a toothbrush. What were the resources that you looked at? It sounds like they were geared toward treating cyanobacteria which is unsightly and in some cases harmful, but that's completely different from what you have.

If this is what your livestock are used to, odds are you're fine. Buildup is possible over time but you'll mostly see that in the form of limescale. From a layman's perspective, high KH means that your fish are more likely to develop healthy bones and your invertebrates are more likely to have healthy shells/exoskeletons. This is especially critical for livebearers. Minerals dissolved in the water column don't evaporate (much like how aquarium salt has to be removed through water changes) so can accumulate over time. If you want to look at resources about how buildup ramps up I highly recommend looking into marine resources as this is something frequently looked at by marine aquarists. Unfortunately the solution is generally to use RO to top off. If you have any terrestrial plants I highly recommend trying to do "water changes" by using tank water in your garden. This is what I've done with my tanks and the plants definitely appreciate my fish water so I don't feel like anything is going to waste.

In that case he's referencing this one. To me it looks more like an aquatic slime mold than algae but that's pure speculation. This one shown at other points in the video is definitely staghorn though